


like the way it's meant to be

by defiantlyneurotic



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: And Allura thinks so too, F/M, Fatherhood, Kallura Month 2017, Keith is an excellent caretaker of the space mice, implied Plance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-28
Updated: 2017-09-28
Packaged: 2019-01-06 15:12:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12213411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/defiantlyneurotic/pseuds/defiantlyneurotic
Summary: “I want to be the adoptive father to the space mice!”Allura stared uncertainly at him. “You want. . . to adopt the space mice?”





	like the way it's meant to be

**Author's Note:**

> this takes place while shiro is still missing. keith is the pilot of the black lion. lance is the pilot of the red lion. allura is the pilot of the blue lion.

When he opened his door that morning, Pidge had been the last person he had been expecting to be waiting for him just across the threshold. He blinked and attempted to conceal his confusion as the door slid shut behind him and clicked softly into place. He opened his mouth to greet her, but the first letter in _good morning_ had barely left his lips when she cut him off by grabbing two fistfuls of his shirt. She yanked him down harshly to her height so that they were now eye-level. He gulped and didn’t attempt to break away as he recognized fierce determination lighting up her auburn eyes. Whatever she was there to do, she wasn’t leaving without accomplishing it.

  
Keith didn’t know how he had wronged her, or if Pidge was even here because of something he did. But he figured it was in his best interest to shut his mouth and let her say her peace, lest he felt like getting on her bad side. And today of all days, he had no interest in pissing anyone off. Much less the Green Paladin of Voltron, who may have been no taller than five feet, but was an absolute force to be reckoned with when she wanted to be.

“Don’t fuck this up,” she told him, lips drawn into a serious line. And then she released him.

  
“Huh?” he uttered dumbly as he took a couple steps back, putting as much distance as he could between them in the rather narrow corridor.

  
“I said, 'Don’t fu-'.”

 

“No, no,” Keith interrupted, shaking his head slowly. "I heard what you said, Pidge. I just don’t know what I’m not meant to be fucking up."

  
“Oh. Lance told me you were planning on confessing to Allura today,” Pidge said, eyeing him carefully.

  
Keith swore loudly under his breath. Pidge raised a brow. He felt the tips of his ears burn now that another person knew, but he ignored it in favor of being annoyed with Lance. “Of course he did. Why do I even tell him anything?”

  
And under normal circumstances, Keith most definitely would not have gone to Lance for help. But with Shiro still missing, and Allura being the center of his problems, there was no one really left to turn to. Sure, Hunk was good at dealing with people and feelings, but he and Lance had definitely grown closer considering the circumstances, and he knew Lance was more educated in the area of romance than he was. (Or so he claimed.) Did he expect Lance to go running his mouth to the next person he crossed paths with in the castle? Yes, the thought had crossed his mind, but he never actually thought Lance would do it. God, where was his bayard when he actually needed it?

  
“And before you get mad and start storming off to his room, according to Lance you also never explicitly told him he couldn’t tell anyone else, so that’s that,” Pidge finished and allowed a smug and satisfied smirk to curl over her face.

  
“Yeah, well, I never thought he’d run off and tell anyone,” Keith shot back, folding his arms over his chest. “Was it too much for me to expect that he would actually respect my privacy like a good friend? Besides, I hadn’t realized you and Lance were that close.”

  
Now it was Pidge’s turn to flush red as she raised her fist to her mouth to cough into it. “We’re not. Lance and I friends. Completely platonic buddies, and I have no idea what you’re implying becuase I, in no way, harbor any romantic feelings for that goof. Furthermore, I’d like to add that. . .”

  
Keith’s eyes widened in surprise as she continued to ramble on. He hadn’t actually been implying anything, just making an offhand comment, but that was. . . interesting news to say the least. Lance and Pidge, who would have thought? Certainly not him. He’d have to ask Hunk if he knew anything about this later.

  
“Anyway,” Pidge cleared her throat, cheeks still tinged a light shade of pink. “Forget I said anything. This is about you and Allura.”

  
Keith screwed up his face. “Listen, Pidge, I don’t really want to-.”

  
“I know, I know, you don’t want to talk about it. I get that, and to be quite honest, I don’t really want to talk about it either. Hearing you gush about how amazing, and radiant, and strong, and utterly perfect Allura is? Yeah, no, I’ll pass. I came here for one thing and one thing only.”

  
Keith raised a single brow. “And that would be. . ?” he prompted.

  
“To offer to you sage words of wisdom my brother Matt would tell me whenever I was particularly scared or nervous to do something. Don’t fuck this up.”

  
Keith squared his shoulders and drew in a sharp breath. Pidge peered up at him expectantly, awaiting his response. He offered her what he hoped was a reassuring smile.

“Don’t worry. I won’t,” he promised, channeling confidence that would surely abandon him when the moment finally came.

  
Pidge must have believed him, because she beamed widely at him, and raised her hand to clap him on his back. “That’s the spirit.”

* * *

But of course, he fucked it up.

  
What he intended to come out of his mouth was a well-rehearsed, deep, moving, and meaningful confession. He’d practiced it all of yesterday with Lance, upon the other boy’s insistence.

( _C’mon Keith, I can help you with what not to say._ “Lance, you’ve literally never successfully wooed a girl. How can you possibly know what’s right to say?” _Just shut up and trust me!_ ) The practice had been more annoying than embarrassing as Lance kept interjecting with his promised advice. The advice being crappy pick-up lines _guaranteed to work on a badass alien space princess like Allura._ “Lance didn’t you use these exact same pick-up lines on her and fail miserably?” _I said shut up, mullet!_

  
What came out of Keith’s mouth was nothing close to a love confession, instead a garbled and rushed, “I want to be the adoptive father to the space mice!”

  
He panicked. He didn’t even know how it happened. He was alone in a princess’ bedroom. A princess named Allura who was incredibly breathtaking with her hair slightly disheveled and still intimidating despite the fact that her face showed nothing but concern, because she was worried something was wrong. And then all the words he had spent hours practicing abandoned him, and all that was left was Lance’s voice in the back of his head telling him that he wanted to be the godfather to his half Galran and half Altean babies. His eyes, which had been flitting wildly around the room at that point, desperate to focus on anything but her face, her oh so gorgeous face, landed on the mice who were peering curiously at him, perched on her head and shoulders. The words had spilled from his mouth before he could even comprehend their meaning.

  
Allura stared uncertainly at him. “You want. . . to adopt the space mice?”

  
“Yes,” was his immediate response before he began to shake his head rapidly back and forth. ”I mean no.”

  
“Well? What is it? Yes or no?” Allura asked, a soft smile dancing across her lips. That smile did funny things to his mind. She was laughing at him, he realized with a start, and he found that he didn’t mind one bit.

  
“I- uh, it’s a yes and a no?” _No Keith, you idiot, it’s just a no_. “I don’t know if it’s actually possible for me to adopt space mice? Maybe I can just take care of them for a while. Hang out with them and do all the stuff that you do with them. It could be. . . fun.”

  
“Keith, honestly. What’s brought this on? Do you even know their names? Do you even know how many of them there are?”

  
“Allura, please, just give me this chance. I’ll prove to you that I can be a great father to the space mice. I’ll learn all their names, and I’ll even learn how many there are. Just let me do this, Princess. Please.”

  
He didn’t know why he was pleading with a princess to let him take care of her pet mice. His brain and his mouth didn’t seem to be working together as one cohesive unit anymore, and it was apparent they didn’t plan to get their act together any time soon. The four mice (he counted) were eying him apprehensively, and he held their gaze warily. Had Keith ever even interacted with the mice during his stay at the castle? He couldn’t recall.

  
‘ _I can do this_ ,’ he assured himself. ‘ _Anything to impress the princess of my heart. Even if it means entertaining her rodent friends. That is, if she lets me. . ._ '

  
“Hmm,” Allura was humming thoughtfully in his ear. She was circling around him, appraising him with a slight raise of her brow. He watched her as she raked her eyes over his body carefully. That made the faintest of blushes find its way to his cheeks. Then she came to a stop in front of him, much closer than she had been before. Her eyes studied his face, and he studied her eyes, admiring the rich mauve coloring imbedded in her pupils.

  
She raised a hand to stroke her chin, a habit Keith suspected she picked up from the former blue paladin. At first he thought she was going to refuse. However, a long grin soon stretched the length of her face as she leaned forward into his personal space and clapped her hands excitedly. “I think it is an excellent idea!”

  
“Really?” Keith balked.

  
“Oh yes,” Allura nodded her head, tone serious. “The mice have always taken a keen interest in you. Fascinated by you, I might add. I shall introduce you to my friends.” Allura lifted the largest mouse off her head. “This is Platt.” She scooped the blue mouse off her shoulder and held it out to him in her other hand. “Plachu.” She gestured to the two remaining mice on her shoulder, the smallest mouse and the pink one. “Chulatt and Chuchule.”

  
Keith stared blankly at her. “. . . Come again?”

  
The mice squeaked loudly, their way of voice their indignance he supposed. He felt his left eye twitched as he forced the largest grin he could muster. Just what had he gotten himself into exactly?

* * *

  
Fatherhood, as Keith discovered, was hard. Especially when you were fathering four space mice who didn’t like you in the slightest.

  
They were untrusting of him, for one. They followed him everywhere he went around the castle, trailing behind him like lost puppies. They kept him under careful surveillance and gave him no privacy whatsoever. They refused to leave his side, even at night, when he insisted that they go back to Allura and sleep with her.

  
This meant they slept in his bed with him. They didn’t fall asleep until late into the night, which meant he was kept up by their constant squeaking as they communicated with one another. Probably about how much joy they were getting out of torturing him like this. And when they finally dozed off they were scattered everywhere around him so that he couldn’t roll over or move a single inch unless he wished to crush one of them. He didn’t imagine that Allura would want to date him after that.

  
And then the worst thing of all? The worst form of torture they inflicted upon him? They messed with his hair. He thought Lance’s previous comments and jabs at his mullet were bad? Those remarks couldn’t compare to the ones Lance made when his hair was braided and pulled into tiny pigtails all over his head. When the mice were feeling particularly bold and daring they raided Allura’s room for floral hair clips and sometimes she even helped them out, fighting off a fit of giggles as she did so.

  
When he expressed his concern about the mice’s dislike for him, Allura had smiled and explained that it was just the opposite. Keith doubted her as he combed out all the knots and tangles later on. But soon after the mice began to grow on him and he found himself actually enjoying their company. Of course, they spent time with Allura, though they scampered off to be with her only to return to his side an hour or so later. They listened to him, and he wasn’t sure if they understood, but it was nice to have them there. Certain things were difficult to talk about with other people, and he couldn't imagine himself confiding in any of his fellow Paladins about particular matters.

  
He had just gotten done with a particularly taxing training session on the training deck late one afternoon, and he wasn’t shocked to find that Allura had slipped in without him noticing. His eyes were trained on the ceiling as he lied flat on his back, trying to regain a normal breathing pattern. Platt was nestled into the crook of his neck, Chulatt and Chuchule were curled up on his stomach, and Plachu was resting on his shoulder. Allura settled beside him on the floor and he turned his head to gaze at her. She smiled gently at him as she held out a finger, and scratched Platt’s exposed stomach.

  
“Hey,” he murmured, watching fondly as Platt blinked tiredly at the princess. It didn’t take him long to jump up and scurry to her. The other mice remained asleep scattered on his body.

  
“I haven’t actually gotten a chance to ask you, but have you been enjoying the past couple of weeks parenting the space mice?” Allura asked him.

  
Keith raised his arm to cover the lower portion of his face to hide his smile, though he knew Allura could hear it in his voice when he spoke. “They’re alright I guess.”

  
“ _‘They’re alright’_ ,” Allura repeated and amusement colored her tone. “Sure, Keith. Didn’t I tell you they liked you? And now you like them. I knew it was only a matter of time.”

  
“Hmm,” Keith hummed, neither confirming nor denying her statement. She scoffed in mock annoyance and he watched as she moved to push his shoulder, only to stop when she saw the blue mouse resting on it. She huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. Keith chortled at that, and Allura turned to him sharply. After a second of playfully glaring at him, she began to giggle as well. They continued like this, until their gleeful sounds morphed into full-on obnoxious laughter, snorts and hiccups echoing between the two of them at an alarming volume, until the mice couldn’t stand it any longer, and ran off to find a more quiet place.

  
Soon, the laughter died down, and Keith was left with a goofy smile on his face, Allura mirroring his expression.

  
“But really,” Allura spoke when she had calmed down completely. “You are an excellent dad.”

  
Keith snorted. “To four space mice who don’t even need me to feed them.”

  
“Yes, but still. It is the thought that counts, is it not? And I’d like to think that you will be a spectacular father in the future,” Allura told him, voice sincere.

  
His heart stilled in his chest before it began fluttering wildly. “You think?”

  
Allura nodded. “I do.”

  
Keith’s smile broadened as he closed his eye. Allura was silent by his side, and he was content to just bask in the blissful silence this moment offered. After a few minutes or so, he heard her shift by his side. Curious, he tilted his head, and was getting ready to open his mouth to ask if she was leaving, but the words died in his brain when he felt a light pressure against the corner of his lips. His eyes flew open, and he was just in time to see Allura pulling away from him, a light blush dusting over her cheeks. She refused to meet his gaze as she rose to her feet and made her way to the exit.

  
“I should go find the mice,” she called back to him over her shoulder. “I need to spend all the time I can with them before they decided to run back to you. Who knew friends would choose their parent over you?”

  
Keith pushed himself into a sitting position, straing wide-eyed at her retreating form. Nervously, he ran a hand through his hair and glanced frantically around the room, just to double check that the mice weren’t hiding in any crevices. He hadn’t actually seen where they scurried off to, if they'd even left the training deck. If they had seen the events that had unfolded just now, they would never stop teasing him about it. And, they probably wouldn’t be afraid to let everyone in the castle know, communicating through their theatrics. . .

  
Just when he thought that he was in the clear, and was moving to lie back down to contemplate Allura's actions,  out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a blur of blue streak past him, following Allura.

  
“Shit!” he cursed, stumbling to his feet.

**Author's Note:**

> haha. . . probably not what you expected for this prompt. not what i expected for this prompt. my first piece of writing for this ship, for this fandom, and it's this crap. lolol. i actually struggled with all the kallura month prompts?? like, it was quite sad. but i got really inspired by the Pokemon! AU prompt. . . maybe too inspired lmao. what started out as a one-shot is now a series of loosely collected one-shots. so that's something to look forward to hopefully. let's just pray that this isn't my first, and last fanfic for this fandom. (i lose motivtion fairly easily.)


End file.
